Blood glucose measurement of a diabetes patient is a frequently occurring task. Each measurement requires both manual work and suitably also some computerized analysis work.
Blood glucose monitoring and adjustment of the treatment regimen is important in the management of diabetes. This requires measurement of glucose values (typically with a portable monitor, from a blood sample), recording the results and later analyzing the results. The results can be used to better the treatment regimen and balance. Typically, wireless or wired data transfer methods can be used to transport results from the meter to a local or server-based database for the analysis.
Finding the optimal balance between food intake, insulin dosage, exercise and other factors affecting the blood glucose level is a difficult task, especially to a person who has just been diagnosed with diabetes and who needs to change his/her habits, and most importantly, who needs to learn a way to monitor the blood glucose level in an efficient way. One method of learning is to divide the problem into multiple components, guide person's attention to a small number of issues (e.g. one) at a time and to solve thus the issues one-by-one.
The measurement processes of the prior art require an unnecessarily large number of measurements yet providing measurement data of insufficient quality and understandability especially for a new diabetes patient. The measurement processes of the art also lack adaptability according to the current needs of the patient and/or medical personnel.
Typical solutions include graphs and tables of values. The graphs and average values, however, are not suitable to make decisions on the improvement of measurement process or a treatment related to the measurement process. The results of these existing software typically require a trained user and further analysis of the results, which is time consuming.
Patent application WO2007093482 describes a device and method for managing data relating to blood glucose level for a person. In the method, blood glucose level is measured before and after an event to obtain data pairs, and the data pairs are processed, and based on the processed data pairs, graphics and/or text is displayed on a display means. The publication fails to teach a method where the measurement data is utilized for controlling the measurement process. Further, the solution described displays the results on a 2D-table in a manner that makes it difficult to make any concrete adjustments to the treatment. The table may be difficult to understand, requiring further analysis. Further, the publication fails to teach a method to analyze the treatment balance and its development over different periods of time. Furthermore, the publication fails to teach a method to target the measurements, and interpret the results in a form providing instant basis for assessing and improving the treatment balance.
Patent application US20080234943 discloses a diabetes management information providing program for use in a diabetes management system. The program has an object module, where messages have patterns from patient data indicative of variability by time of day, day in week or time intervals
Patent application WO2008071218 discloses a monitoring device, e.g a personal battery-powered diagnostic handheld device. The device relates to stored measurement values of an analyte test element port to a medical useful compliance range.
Patent application WO2005093629 discloses a display device for diabetic patients. The device displays a graph showing time relative to habitual meals and blood glucose level, in which glucose level at point of time of meal, mean or median value of pre and post meal glucose values are indicated.
Patent application US20080119705 discloses a diabetes managing system for managing diabetes using a medical device and a consumer electronic device.
The system has a connector that is removably coupled to a consumer electronic device to facilitate communication between the medical device and the consumer electronic device.
Patent application US20000177147 discloses an insulin therapy managing apparatus for treating diabetic persons. The apparatus has an insulin timing module initiating delivery of insulin in time relation to when a meal is to be consumed by user, and adjusting the delivery of insulin based on this information.
Patent application US20050272040 discloses a computer-implemented control method for insulin dosing for diabetics. The method involves estimating preprandial dosage of insulin based on observed postprandial glucose response to meal, insulin sensitivity and preprandial insulin dose of current day.
A method and arrangement that gradually guides the patient towards an efficient blood glucose measurement and controlling process by improving gradually the quality and usefulness of data obtainable from the measurements is desired. Such method advantageously guides patient's attention at each point of time to a small number of issues that require improvement. Eventually, after the issues are under control, the number of measurements needed and amount of guidance provided to the patient should be minimized.